Doctors with bad news seen as less compassionate

Doctors who deliver bad news may be viewed as less compassionate by patients than when they deliver positive news, according to a new study.

Scientists from the University of Texas showed 100 cancer patients two videos of fictional interactions between doctors and patients. In one video, a doctor told an advanced cancer patient that there were no further treatment options to try. In the second video, a doctor told an advanced cancer patient that there may be some further treatment options. After watching the videos, the patients were asked to rate how compassionate they viewed the doctors, using a scale of 0 to 500 with 50 being the least compassionate.

The findings, published in JAMA Oncology, showed that the patients rated the doctor delivering the good news with a score of 19, while they rated the doctor delivering the bad news with a score of 26. Researchers said that doctors delivering bad news are often viewed as less compassionate regardless of their intentions or how they frame the conversation. They said they hope that the findings can help researchers help doctors develop techniques when they have to deliver bad news, without affecting the patient’s perceptions.

Study say psychiatric drugs overused on elderly

A federal investigation by the Government Accountability Office concludes that too many elderly Americans with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are being prescribed with psychiatric drugs and recommends that Medicare officials need to focus on reducing the practice.

While acknowledging that the Obama administration has begun working to reduce overuse of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes, the agency’s report notes that more action needs to be taken to reduce drug overuse by people with dementia who live outside of nursing homes, such as at home or in assisted living facilities.

One possible explanations for why antipsychotic drugs may be being overprescribed, investigators said, was that the drugs are sometimes given to calm patients’ behavioral symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s, including yelling or hitting. However, experts said prescribing antipsychotic drugs to address behavioral symptoms can be dangerous and lead to increased risk of death in older adults with both dementia and psychosis.

In addition to being potentially harmful to the health of people with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia, excessive use of antipsychotic drugs can increase risk of death, falls, hospitalizations and other health complications, according to the American Health Care Association. Also, antipsychotic drugs are also expensive, costing hundreds of millions of Medicare dollars, and that reducing overuse of antipsychotic drugs will likely both save money in the long run and will help lead to better care for patients.

Aspirin is born: March 6, 1899

The Friedrich Bayer & Co., long a German dye manufacturer, ensures its place as a leader in the budding pharmaceutical industry when the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers acetylsalicylic acid under the trademark “Aspirin.”

Much earlier in the 19th century, scientists had identified salicylic acid as the ingredient that, for centuries, had made willow bark one of the more popular treatments for pain and fever. But it had a terrible taste and tended to damage a patient’s stomach. In the fall of 1897, however, a chemist in Bayer’s lab named Felix Hoffmann, had been able to create a stable form of the drug, one that was safer, more palatable and just as importantly, able to be mass produced.

As it turned out, Hoffmann perfected another drug that same month, one that executives at Bayer felt had much more potential than Aspirin. It was a medication designed to be a non-addictive replacement for morphine and marketed to suppress heavy coughs and relieve the pain of childbirth. Bayer named it Heroin.

Initially, Aspirin was sold in powder form, a gram at a time, and only through prescriptions. In 1915, though, it became available as a pill that could be bought over the counter. A few years later, a devastating flu pandemic started spreading around the world, which sent sales of Aspirin skyrocketing. After World War I, however, Bayer was forced to sell its overseas properties as part of Germany’s war reparations, and Bayer lost its trademark. Aspirin became the more generic aspirin.

Another chapter of the aspirin story unfolded after World War II, in 1949, three years after Hoffmann’s death. Arthur Eichengrun, a more senior scientist at Bayer when Hoffman made his discovery, released a paper saying that Hoffmann had been working under his direction and that he, Eichengrun, had pushed senior executives at the company to support aspirin. The speculation was that Eichengrun was not given credit for his role in the development of aspirin because he was Jewish. (During World War II, he had spent a year and a half in a concentration camp.) As recently as 1999, a research paper supported Eichengrun’s story, but Bayer has stuck with the version in which Hoffman is aspirin’s sole creator.

Aspirin’s dominance as an over-the-counter painkiller began to fade in the 1960s, particularly when ibuprofen hit the market. But it began a comeback the next decade when clinical trials showed that aspirin could lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks and doctors began recommending an aspirin a day as wise preventive medicine. More recent research suggested that a daily aspirin may also help lower the risk of developing certain cancers, although experts say that because of its potential side effects of bleeding in the GI tract, the regimen should only be followed at a doctor’s recommendation.

The Friedrich Bayer & Co., long a German dye manufacturer, ensures its place as a leader in the budding pharmaceutical industry when the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registers acetylsalicylic acid under the trademark “Aspirin.”

Much earlier in the 19th century, scientists had identified salicylic acid as the ingredient that, for centuries, had made willow bark one of the more popular treatments for pain and fever. But it had a terrible taste and tended to damage a patient’s stomach. In the fall of 1897, however, a chemist in Bayer’s lab named Felix Hoffman had been able to create a stable form of the drug, one that is safer, more palatable and just as importantly, able to be mass produced. Bayer names it Aspirin. (As it turned out, Hoffman perfected another drug that same month, one that executives at Bayer felt had much more potential than aspirin. It was a medication designed to be a non-addictive replacement for morphine and marketed to suppress heavy coughs and relieve the pain of childbirth. Bayer named it heroin.)

Initially, Aspirin is sold in powder form, a gram at a time, and only through prescriptions. In 1915, though, it becomes available as a pill that can be bought over the counter. A few years later, a devastating flu pandemic starts spreading around the world, sending sales of Aspirin skyrocketing. After World War I, however, Bayer is forced to sell its overseas properties as part of Germany’s war reparations, and Bayer loses its trademark. Aspirin becomes the more generic aspirin.

Another chapter of the aspirin story unfolded after World War II, in 1949, three years after Hoffman’s death. Arthur Eichengrun, a more senior scientist at Bayer when Hoffman made his discovery, released a paper saying that Hoffman had been working under his direction and that he, Eichengrun, had pushed senior executives at the company to support aspirin. The speculation was that Eichengrun was not given credit for his role in the development of aspirin because he was Jewish. (During World War II, he had spent a year and a half in a concentration camp.) As recently as 1999, a research paper supported Eichengrun’s story, but Bayer has stuck with the version in which Hoffman is aspirin’s sole creator.

Aspirin’s dominance as an over-the-counter painkiller began to fade in the 1960s, particularly when ibuprofen hit the market. But it began a comeback the next decade when clinical trials showed that aspirin could lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks and doctors began recommending an aspirin a day as wise preventive medicine.

Agency recommends cutting music on headphones to hour a day

Listening to music for more than one hour a day may lead to hearing damage and loss, according to new research from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO said that the percentage of teenagers in the U.S. with hearing loss increased from 3.5 percent in 1994 to 5.3 percent in 2006 and that the prevalence of hearing loss in both teenagers and adults is increasing. Risk of hearing damage and loss is increased by unsafe sound levels from personal audio devices, clubs and bars, concerts and car radios.

The report included recommendations for safe sound levels and listening times for various audio sources, including the following: mp3 players at 105 decibels (dB) for four minutes, loud rock concert at 115 dB for 28 seconds, noise inside a car at 85 dB for eight hours. Because measuring exact decibels can be challenging, the WHO says keeping volume at 60 percent volume or less is a good rule of thumb.

Other tips for reducing risk of hearing damage include wearing noise-cancelling headphones–which allow music to be heard more clearly at a lower volume, wearing ear plugs at loud concerts and standing far away from speakers. The WHO added that use of personal audio devices should be limited to a one hour a day at a safe sound level to reduce risk of hearing damage.